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Ukraine president says full peace is very close with Russia

Ukraine president says full peace is very close with Russia

26 September 2014

Significant achievements were reached in establishing the ceasefire in the Donbas region, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told the Sept. 25 press conference in Kyiv. They include the release of more than 1,200 Ukrainian prisoners and limiting the current shooting to only four localities. “Look at the dynamics of how the fighting changed,” he said. “Earlier, the fighting occurred along the entirely frontline, almost 700 km. Not simply shooting, but offensive operations. The number of victims measured dozens per day, while hundreds per day were taken captive,” Poroshenko said, adding, “We are very close to full peace. Earlier, no one even dreamed about peace.”

 

The Ukrainian government was not able to wage a war with Russia, he said, as 65 percent of the nation’s military hardware was destroyed. Ukrainian factories are producing only 30 to 40 units of hardware per day. The ceasefire also enabled Ukraine to gain the world’s support. “Otherwise, Ukraine would have ended up one-on-one with its aggressor,” he said. The current attacks are being waged by separate gangs, which the Ukrainian army will respond to, he said.

 

Poroshenko told the Sept. 25 press conference that he expects at least three of the 12 points of the Sept. 5 Minsk ceasefire protocol will be fulfilled by the Russian government. They include the immediate withdrawal of Russian armies from Ukrainian territory, the immediate release of Ukrainian prisoners of war, and the creation of a buffer zone on the Ukrainian-Russian border and returning its control to the State Border Service of Ukraine. The Ukrainian government will work with the EU, the U.S. and the OSCE to implement the Minsk agreement, he said.

 

Ukrainian Presidential Administration Head Borys Lozhkin communicates with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Ivanov, if not every day then every other day to ensure the Donbas ceasefire, Poroshenko told the Sept. 25 press conference. Lozhkin gets involved if defense officials can’t get in touch with the Russian Joint Chiefs of Staff, he said. “We name concrete points, concrete shootings, as well as concrete steps that we would like to be taken,” he said. “That’s effective, in most cases,” he said. Both Poroshenko and Lozhkin call the Kremlin if shooting needs to be stopped, he said.

 

Poroshenko said he is planning to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in three weeks in Europe. The meeting’s outcome depends on the success of the ceasefire, he said. The night of Sept. 24 was the first without any wounded Ukrainian soldiers or deaths, with only two roadblocks shot at. “If 100 days ago, no one believed that we’d be able to stop the war, then today, when we are getting closer to the reality that there is and will be peace, these are pivotal changes in the attitudes of society,” he said.

 

Poroshenko enacted on Sept. 24 a decree by the National Security and Defense Council that gives the government the authority to partly or fully close Ukraine’s border crossings with the Russian Federation, as well as to conduct a unilateral demarcation of the border. The border crossings to be considered for closure include automobile, maritime and pedestrian points. The border demarcation should be enforced by the appropriate technical enhancements with international assistance, the decree stated.

 

Ukrainian roadblocks in the surrounding territories of Mariupol were targeted by Grad multiple rocket launchers on Sept. 25, reported a local web site for military personnel. Two soldiers were injured, one seriously. Multiple artillery fire was heard throughout all the districts of the city of Donetsk, the City Council website reported on Sept. 25. That night, a series of explosions at the Donetsk airport cut its electricity and ignited a large fire, reported the zn.ua news site.

 

Zenon Zawada: Poroshenko is milking the ceasefire for all it’s worth in his political rhetoric, and it’s a very effective strategy so far. He will go to great lengths to keep the peace until the early parliamentary elections on Oct. 26. That is his advantage in these elections, yet it’s also his Achilles Heel that Putin could very well exploit. Indeed we expect the Russian president to use these next few weeks to squeeze more concessions from Poroshenko under the threat of escalating the fighting. That would undermine the prospects of the Poroshenko Bloc gaining more than a third of the seats in parliament that it’s on track to achieve, according to recent polls.

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